The Joy and Light Bus Company: No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (22) (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series) Hardcover – November 16, 2021 by Alexander McCall Smith

Description

Author: McCall Smith Alexander

Color: Multicolor

Package Dimensions: 17x235x503

Number Of Pages: 240

Release Date: 16-11-2021

Details: Product Description

In this latest installment in the beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Mma Ramotswe is tempted to put the brakes on a business venture before it even gets rolling.“McCall Smith is a master …. There’s beauty and revelation of one kind or another woven expertly into every line.” —The Christian Science Monitor

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni attends a course hosted by the local chamber of commerce entitled “Where Is Your Business Going?” But rather than feeling energized, he comes back in low spirits, unsure how to grow the already venerable and successful Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Then an old friend from school approaches him about a new business venture that could be just the ticket. When it turns out he will need to mortgage his property in order to pursue this endeavor, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi wonder what this will mean for his current business—as well as their own.

Even as she puzzles over mysteries on the domestic front, Mma Ramotswe’s professional duties must take precedence. When a concerned son learns that his aging father’s nurse now stands to inherit the family home, he begins to doubt her intentions and takes his case to Botswana’s premier detective agency. Fortunately, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are committed agents of justice and agree to investigate.

Tricky as these matters may be, Mma Ramotswe knows that the most creative solutions are often found with the support of loving friends and family. Working together over a cup of red bush tea, she and Mma Makutsi will rely on their tact, humor, and goodwill to ensure that all involved find the happiness that they deserve.

Review

Praise for Alexander McCall Smith’s The Joy and Light Bus Company:

“Comfort-food reading, and never more welcome.”
—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels and of a number of other series and stand-alone books. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have been best sellers throughout the world. He lives in Scotland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER ONE

Past Tense Men

IT WAS A QUESTION to which Mma Ramotswe, like many women in Botswana, and indeed like many women in so many other places, gave more than occasional thought. It was not that she dwelt on it all the time; it was not even that it occupied her mind much of the time, but it was certainly something that she thought about now and then, especially when she was sitting on her verandah in the first light of the morning, looking out at the acacia tree on the other side of the road, in which two Cape doves, long in love, cooed endearments to one another, while for her part she sipped at her first cup of red bush tea, not in any hurry to do whatever it was that she had to do next. That, of course, is always a good time to think—when you know that you are going to have to do something, but you know that you do not have to do it just yet.

The question she occasionally thought about—the question in question, so to speak—was not a particularly complicated one, and could be expressed in a few simple words, namely:
How do you keep men happy? Of course, Mma Ramotswe knew that there were those who considered this to be a very old-fashioned question, almost laughable, and there were even those who became markedly indig­nant at the assumptions that lurked behind such an enquiry. Mma Ramotswe, although a traditional woman in some respects, also considered herself modern in others, and understood very well that women were not placed on this earth simply to look after men. There were unfortunately still men who seemed to hold that view—they had not entirely disappeared—but they were fewer in number, she was happy to observe, and nobody paid much attention to them any longer. These men were called
past-tense men by Mma Makutsi, Mma Ramotswe’s friend and colleague—a vivid, if perhaps slightly unkind expression. If any man ex